Background: The ageing of the world population is simultaneously a great triumph and a great challenge. It is essential to adjust health care systems to older populations, and community pharmacies are no exception. Objective: The goal was to identify barriers and facilitators, perceived by older patients, that may influence counselling in community pharmacy and, consequently, therapeutical adherence. Methods: A qualitative study was performed. Six focus groups were conducted, with 51 participants. The target population was people of 65 years or older who were autonomous and frequently went to community pharmacies. The sessions occurred in the place where older adults had gymnastic classes, to avoid mobility constraints. The audio was recorded, the interviews were transcribed ad verbatim, and the data were managed using NVivo (version 15). Results: Four main themes emerged: barriers centered around older adults, centered around physical space, centered around pharmacy professionals, and centered around society. Nine categories emerged from the data analysis. Also, several facilitators were identified, which were organized according to the same themes. There were also nine categories identified. Conclusions: Public authorities should define strategies to prevent physical and social barriers and thus promote age-friendly environments. Rather than simply identifying or detecting problems, it is essential to focus on how they can be mitigated. In this study, it was possible to relate some facilitators to the identified barriers. The findings showed the urgent need to involve community pharmacies in age-friendly initiatives, to ensure safer environments for older adults, who are among the most frequent users of community pharmacies.
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Barriers and facilitators in counselling in community pharmacy perceived by older patients: a focus group study
Published:
20 March 2026
by MDPI
in The 1st International Online Conference on Healthcare
session Patient-Centered Care—Optimizing Care Pathways through Engagement and Outcome Measurement
Abstract:
Keywords: barriers; facilitators; community pharmacy; older patients
